Welcome to the New Media Revolution!

In years past, products were sold personally. They were marketed through cajoling, persuasion, and to some extent even manipulation. This is somewhat humiliating on the part of the seller, especially if he is not born as a natural salesperson. This is also usually annoying to the targeted customer. Such marketing strategy wastes a lot of time and effort, both on the part of the seller and the buyer. With the advent of new production and development technologies, new products and services were invented. This gives rise to the evolution of New Media Revolution.

Today, there are many different forms of media used in standard marketing:

• Newspapers, magazines, radios, and televisions are now deluged with advertisements.
• Posters, leaflets, flyers, and banners are also used as advertising tools.
• Business cards and brochures are handed personally to people or sent through snail mail.

A Little History Of New Media Revolution

During the industrial age, mass production became very efficient. More products were produced at a lesser cost and with fewer man hours used. This gave rise to more product variants such as toothpaste and shampoo, as well as more models of machines like automobiles. More luxury products were also developed such as facial wash, nail cream, hair colorant, foot moisturizer, and many others!

To market these non-basic or not-so-essential products, the psychological psyche of the individual was targeted. Specifically targeted was the self esteem of a person, which was identified by Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist, as one of the needs of individuals. Very popular celebrities in the field of entertainment and sports were employed as commercial models.

The ads were very costly, although very effective, because the customers liked to be identified with their favorite celebrities, though indirectly, by using the products that they were endorsing. This part in the marketing of the New Media Revolution is responsible for making the products and services very expensive.

Today, more sensible businessmen use other forms of marketing strategies that are more cost efficient, such as…

• Giving product samples, free trials of products and services, price discounts, and product giveaways.
• Hiring staff to promote products through demos in supermarkets, schools, and other places where there are a greater number of potential customers.
• Showing testimonies of satisfied product users on TV, newspapers, and magazines.
• Providing before- and after-sale services like free deliveries and installation, warranties and free spare parts replacement, and toll-free twenty-four hour call center services that accommodate customer inquiries and requests.

All these methods effectively attract buyers, and even the most discriminating customers. More importantly, they have specific appeal to practical individuals.

In today’s high-tech world, advertisements are becoming subliminal.  Articles are written by regular columnists in tabloids, newspapers, and magazines discretely, mentioning a particular brand of a product. Photos of popular celebrities wearing a particular product, in which brands are conspicuously shown, are seen in tabloids and magazines. These are effective to customers because many have the tendency to think that the product is really good, believing that the photograph and its publication is just coincidental.

The creative evolution of New Media Revolution strategies provides a great relief to both the customer and the seller. For one, the buyer no longer needs to be directly pressured by persistent salesmen to buy a product or service – no longer wasting time and energy. And more importantly, the New Media Revolution liberalizes the entire marketing process.

Did you know that more than 120 million users log on to Facebook at least once a day! Did you know that visiting social media sites is now the 4th most popular online activity – it’s even bigger than personal email. Did you know that Dell sold $3 million worth of computers on Twitter! How about that while 14% of people trust marketing ads, 76% trust consumer recommendations!

Welcome to the world of Social Media for Business!

We’re going to spend just a few minutes showing you why you need to consider Social Media for business!

So, what’s all the Hoop-La about Social Media for Business anyway?

• Is it just for dating sites?
• Is it for connecting with old high school friends?
• Is it for social events?
• Is it only for teenagers?
• Sure, it’s confusing!
• Or is it just plain creepy – with the new language and all the new terminology?
• Bottom Line: Do you think it’s just a waste of time?

Let me ask you – What is the current condition of your business? Could you use more effective Marketing? Could you use more customers purchasing your products and services?

Well, let me just say that Social Media for Business will work extremely well for your business! And I’m going to show you why YOU need to be in the social space!

Most major corporations understand it – and use it…

• Companies like Toyota
• Newsweek
• The Walt Disney Company
• Cisco Systems
• Universal Studios
• Best Buy
• The NBA
• Pepsi
• Mattel and many more

…and they make MONEY from the increased traffic!

…but that’s expected, right?

• They have the high-end advertising budget
• They are able to experiment with marketing
• They already have an established Brand
• They have a huge marketing staff in-house
• They can leverage the media and Public Relations contacts
• And overall, they just have an unfair advantage over small business

But, what about the small to mid-size business?    NO PROBLEM!

With traditional marketing, the approach is Disrupted Attention & Brand Awareness. This is accomplished through telemarketing, direct mailings, radio, print ads, and so on.

But, with New Media Marketing and Social Media for Business, the approach is Relationship driven and it’s Permission based. This is accomplished through Social Media, Opt-In emails, Blogs, and so on.

So, what are YOU going to do…   Are you ready to make a shift to the New Media – to Marketing 2.0?

Let me ask you – How much money did you spend last year on print advertising. I’m talking about newspaper, local magazine ads, yellow pages, and so on. Were you able to track your incoming traffic from these advertisements? And what measurable BUZZ did these print ads create for your business?

Well, did you know that your business CAN COMPETE with other major companies? Did you know that you can reach the same LOCAL demographic as these companies, but in a much more authentic and meaningful way? And did you know that you only need to spend just a FRACTION of what you used to spend on advertising?

Do you want some MORE great news? Well here it is… Social Media for Business will do the job for you!

Social Media for Business is FREE!

What I mean is that it doesn’t cost you anything to set up an account! It doesn’t cost you anything to maintain your social profiles. It’s much like housekeeping… It doesn’t cost you anything to clean your home!            BUT…

Life happens – we ALL have responsibilities, we have obligations, family engagements, kids sporting events, and so on. The list can go on and on.

You know, most business people hire a housekeeper or a maid service because they are just TOO BUSY!

They are TOO BUSY running their business – what with keeping up with sales, book-keeping, marketing, daily operations, and so on.

But, they are also TOO BUSY to have to learn how to use New Media, keeping up with the ever changing landscape of online best practices, new platforms, etc…

Social Media for Business through Social Media Marketing & Management is an in-demand position required to fill the need for Quality Social Media involvement!

The Eagle InTouch! Social Media Management program was created for just this purpose, with the Small Business in mind.

Social Media for Business provided by Eagle InTouch!:

• Offers proven Strategies for online success
• It maintains your Social Profiles while you concentrate on running your day-to-day operations
• It utilizes FREE online tools (SAVING on your Advertising dollars)
• It builds your Brand online & LOCALLY!
• It doubles your website Traffic by providing more detailed attention to your social media landscape
• It increases your Conversion Rates – leading to greater Sales!
• And it builds “Trust” with your customers – providing for more loyal, raving fans!

Let’s quickly cover a couple Case Studies where Social Media for Business was used.

First, we have Curbside Cupcakes

This is a mobile gourmet cupcake vendor in Washington, DC. They used Twitter and Facebook, as well as other online platforms, to build a significant customer following. They built over 3,100 Twitter followers & over 5,600 Facebook fans by posting a Cupcake Calendar with their locations for the month. They also had “Wildcard Spot” days, where they revealed their destinations using Twitter and Facebook. They engaged their followers by tweeting with them, and their fans posted photos of their cupcakes & their interactions with the mobile van on Facebook.

Next, we have CoffeeGroundz

CoffeeGroundz is a cross between a coffee house and a lounge, located in Houston, TX. They were the first to place and receive a “to-go” order using Twitter. The company started taking “to-go” orders using direct message on Twitter, and a whole new sales process was born. The café’s business demand doubled as a result of this strategy, coupled with good press coverage that increased awareness of this convenient way of ordering.

And last we have a family owned wine business

Gary Vaynerchuk grew his family’s wine store business from $4 million to $15 million in just a couple of years – strictly using Social Media. Gary found that in a specific period of time, if he spent $15,000 on direct mail advertising, his return would yield about 200 new customers. If he spent $7,500 on billboard ads, his return would be about 300 new customers. But during this same period of time, he used FREE Social Media for Business – specifically Twitter – and was able to increase his customer base by 1,800 new customers. And he’s been growing ever since!

The bottom line here: Social Media for Business just plain works! It’s effective! And it’s relevant!

Ok… so what’s YOUR ROI for traditional advertising? Is it working for you? Is it guaranteed?

Are you able to track your results? With Social Media for Business, you’ve got REAL numbers to track for “followers”, “LIKES”, and so on.

With your traditional advertising, are you able to capture leads from new potential customers? Are you able to determine if someone was referred to you? Are you able to track your exposure and awareness of your business?

What’s your Conversion plan? Are you prepared to close the deal? You know, your traffic WILL increase…            BUT…

…how are you going to do business today if you DON’T engage with your customers? Social Media is where people are!

So, where are you?

Eric Qualman stated, “Why are we trying to measure social media like a traditional channel anyway? Social media touches every facet of business and is more an extension of good business ethics.”

Alex Bogusky went on to say, “You can’t buy attention anymore. Having a huge budget doesn’t mean anything in social media… The old media paradigm used to be PAY to PLAY. Now you get back what you authentically put in. Today you’ve got to be willing to PLAY to PLAY.”

So, are you interested in knowing more? Do you think that Social Media for Business could help YOUR business? Do you have Questions? Go ahead – contact us at inquiries@EagleInTouch.com  We’d love to talk with you further. Thanks.

Web Video vs. TV Advertising – which are YOU using?

Let’s level the playing field! When I start talking to a business owner about infomercials and web video, he or she assumes you’re talking about television at first. That’s all right! They already know they don’t have the budget for TV in most cases. But their assumption allows me to reveal a bit of a surprise, especially if they ask me outright, “Are you talking about TV?”

I always answer, “No, no. This is much better than TV – it’s the Internet.”

But, why is it better than TV? Because on television, you’re paying for thousands and thousands of people who will never, ever be watching the channel at the exact time that your infomercial comes on the air – on the exact channel – looking for exactly what you offer.

And let’s face it! It costs a lot of money to be placed on cable TV, and even more for broadcast television. So, instead of a 30 second spot, consider a two to three minute infomercial that will be posted on all the top video sites across the world.

Now, the only people who are going to watch your infomercial are those people who are looking for exactly what you’re offering, those who will sit there and watch it, and more often than not, those who will immediately ACT on the offer. That’s the pure art of niche marketing or Influence Marketing right there!

With TV advertising, you’re paying a LOT of money for a LOT of waste. You may get a lot of eyeballs, but chances are slim that they’ll be looking for what you have to offer, right at that moment!

On the other hand, when someone is looking for a specific product or service on the Internet and they find it, the chances are much greater that they will act on that information.

For example, if I produce a 30-second TV commercial for my own product or service:

• YOU’VE got to be on the channel where I purchased the ad space.
• YOU’VE got to be on that channel at EXACTLY the time and moment the commercial appears.
• YOU’VE got to be in the mood, or be looking for my product or service, and
• YOU better remember everything that I told you in 30 seconds, because
• YOU’RE not going to be able to check it out again. Not until you catch that commercial again – and when is THAT going to happen?

Chances are you’ll NEVER be there at that time – and at that place – and on that channel to be able to watch that commercial again, no matter how many times it runs again!

But, with web video infomercials, or online commercials, say you miss the address, or you want to go back and look at a picture of my product or service. You can go back and review the description as many times as you want, or the phone number, or even make a purchase. You can click a button on my YouTube video and send an email out to your friends saying, “Hey, remember when you said you were looking for so-and-so? Well, I just found it on the Internet. Here’s a link to the video that explains it all.”

Now, through viral marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising, that video can be sent out to a person who wasn’t even looking for it at the time. And a recommendation to watch a promotional web video by a friend is the very best referral you can get!

Online Video vs. Print Advertising – which are YOU using?

Let’s level the playing field! When I compare the pricing on online video to magazine ads or newspapers, this is far and above a much better deal. Why? Because Internet online video lasts a lot longer – as much as a year or more. With print ads, they’re “dead” in a week – or a month at most. You have to keep publishing them!

Online video is also much more interesting to watch. When was the last time you felt that way about a print ad? If you keep online video ads compelling, instead of trying to make a big sales pitch, you’ll already be ahead of the competition. Just tell the viewer what the benefits are of coming to your business over somebody else’s. I can almost guarantee you that you’ll have an edge over some company with a nice long 15-page online sales page, or the magazine that gets thrown out when the new issue arrives.

Now, I’m sure you can imagine that the only people who are going to watch your infomercial, or online video commercial, are those who are looking for exactly what you’re offering, those who will sit there and watch it, and more often than not, those who will immediately ACT on the offer. That’s the pure art of niche marketing or Influence Marketing right there!

With print advertising, you’re paying a LOT of money for a LOT of waste! You may get a lot of eyeballs, but chances are slim that they’ll be looking for what you have to offer – at that particular moment.

On the other hand, when someone is looking for a specific product or service on the Internet and they find it, the chances are much greater that they will ACT on that information.

For example, if I produce a print ad for my own product or service:

• YOU’VE got to be looking at the exact magazine and issue where I purchased the ad space.
• YOU’VE got to be in the mood, or be looking for my product or service, and
• YOU’VE got to remember where you saw the print ad if you want to go back and review it again – and what’s the chances of THAT happening?

But, with video infomercials or online commercials, say you miss the address, or you want to go back and look at a picture of my product or service. You can go back and review the description as many times as you want, or the phone number, or even make a purchase. You can click a button on my YouTube video and send an email out to your friends saying, “Hey, remember when you said you were looking for so-and-so? Well, I just found it on the Internet. Here’s a link to the video that explains it all.”

Today, through viral marketing, or word-of-mouth advertising, that online video can be sent out to a person who wasn’t even looking for it at the time. And a recommendation to watch a promotional video by a friend is always the best referral you can get!

Declining Business – it’s why local main street businesses are losing customers!

What most entrepreneurs and new business owners don’t realize is that the most successful businesses focus on building lasting relationships with their customers, rather than on just selling their products and services. It’s an important distinction – one that can literally make or break your business, or cause declining business – and it’s more important today than ever before!

This process of establishing your credibility needs to begin literally, at the very second the potential customer first interacts with you and your brand. With Influence Marketing, using web video, social media, and other influence engines and marketing technologies, this is exactly what happens! From the very first contact with you and your business, potential customers should be directed to your content through multiple influence engines – perhaps several videos on YouTube, a blog entry, a podcast, or possibly even face-to-face networking. The simple fact that you and your content are beginning to be found everywhere online, immediately builds your visibility and your credibility – you’ll start to become recognized as the local expert, the “go to guy” for your industry, and you’ll dramatically reduce any declining business you may have. As a result, you’re able to attract a much higher percentage of potential customers to your website and to your business.

But the fact today still remains – people are quite cynical, which perpetuates a declining business. Rest assured, if a given consumer hasn’t been victimized by online scams himself, he has most certainly heard the horror stories of the many thousands of friends, family members and other business associates who have. As a result, most people are typically quite slow to trust new websites and brands they just don’t feel they know well enough.

Surprised? Don’t be! Think about the last time YOU considered buying a product or service from a site that you weren’t previously familiar with. Sure, the product or service the website offered looked good, but you probably still questioned the legitimacy of the site, the quality of that product or service, and whether you’d get a refund if you weren’t satisfied. And all those doubts likely prompted YOU to do what 99% of YOUR potential customers do with your online and offline advertising every single day – leave without making a purchase or providing your contact information. in other words, you just helped that business generate declining business.

However, once that trust IS established, customers will buy from you willingly, eagerly and often. In fact, over time as that connection with your customer deepens, you barely have to do any traditional “selling” at all. Any declining business you may have quickly evaporates because that growing customer relationship does the “selling” for you. It gets stronger every time top-notch products and services are provided by you – when, how and where you promised!

This is where Influence Marketing comes into play – providing a manageable, cost-effective system for propagating your content, especially your video, written and other social media content, across multiple influence engines, including video sharing sites, social networks, blogs, podcasts, article sites, social bookmarking sites and even smart phones and other mobile devices. By distributing your video, articles and other content across the Internet, and then delivering it to your target audience, Influence Marketing helps to eliminate declining business and build your credibility with potential customers, who didn’t previously know that you or your brand even existed. Establishing that credibility is critical to your success! Potential customers need to believe that you are “the real deal” in order to be willing to spend time on your website and to spend money on your products and services.

How can you build local business in today’s economic climate?

Well, Influence Marketing can come to your rescue by providing for increased potential visibility and traffic, improved customer sales and fantastic long-term growth. Through the use of social media & influence engines, local businesses can now be found online. But first and foremost, you need to get your customers to know you, like you, respect you, and trust you.

The reality is that most businesses lose huge amounts of potential business, when they really don’t need to. Think about it! The typical marketing return is 1%… which means that 99% of your potential customers vanish into thin air – every single day. Talk about wasted opportunity! What if you could change that? What if you could increase your 1% return to 20%, or even 50% return on investment? What would your balance sheet – and your business life – look like then? It’s a real possibility, but to get there, you first need to understand the psychology of Influence Marketing. This type of online marketing is crucial for getting your target audience to visit your business, visit your website, spend time on your site, and ultimately buy from you.

Influence Marketing is quite simply the most effective way to create a successful, sustainable business – whether advertising online or offline.

But, by using online web video, or other forms of niche marketing, Influence Marketing gives you a cost-effective and manageable system for building profitable online customer relationships through multiple influence engines – like marketing through online video, social networks, blogs, podcasts, article sites, social bookmarking sites, and even mobile devices.

And this holds true for potential local customers, as well as long distance customers, looking for specific products and services – the same products and services that YOU offer! Customers searching for your products and services are drawn to the videos and other influence engines that are used to distributed your message online, providing you with true viral marketing.

By submitting the right kinds of SEO (search engine optimization) marketing to a wide variety of video sites, social bookmarking sites, social networks, blogs, podcasts and podcast directories, you help create top search engine rankings in a very short time and generate traffic to your business’ front door, or to your website, lead capture page, or to your phone number.

In order to boost your 1% investment return to 20%, or even 50%, your online strategic marketing must effectively address consumer skepticism. To get results, you need to bring your online marketing down to a very human level. This is best accomplished through the use of web video and the other forms of social marketing.

This process of social network marketing and customer relationship building should be the #1 goal of your Influence Marketing – to connect with your customers in ways that are meaningful and valuable to them – to build relationships that allow them to know, like, respect, and ultimately trust you!

So, is social media & social networking for business a fad?

The success of social networking for business marks a dynamic shift in how we use the Internet. This is based on the mentality that people who share the same interests are drawn together, and given that cyberspace has not barriers, we are now very easily able to get our message across the globe.

There is a startling difference between the traditional search engine marketing and social networking for business. The first one uses keywords in the hopes that people who use a search engine will be able to find them online. The second is a platform where members will not only be able to see your profile, but will also be able to click on a link to go to your website.

This makes the job of people involved in viral marketing and word-of-mouth advertising much easier because you are not necessarily making money directly from them, but instead you’re getting referrals from them, which helps in promoting your business overall.

But social networking is only one of the many online marketing tools that are used today by most marketing-savvy businesses. They also rely on blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds to reach a much larger audience. Although it does not reach a specific market, it makes social networking for business the ideal choice when promoting a product or service.

Social networking for business sites are a gold mine because you have the opportunity to promote your product without having to pay for advertising. Studies show that people who know you are much more receptive to a familiar face rather than simply saying “yes” to someone they just met.

The best way to get the most out of social networking for business is to advertise your products in more than just one social network. And so that you don’t waste your time, you should do some research to find out which ones are frequented by more of the people you are trying to target with your marketing. If this turns out to be too general, try to look for social networks that specialize in whatever business or service you are offering.

But, why are social networking for business sites so popular?

There are literally hundreds of social networking sites in cyberspace and you can become a member of any number of them. Is it a fad? Most marketing experts say “NO!” That’s because it is the best way to connect people with the same or similar interests, regardless of their age and gender.

Connecting with people is achieved by just putting yourself out there. This means creating a social networking for business account and sharing a little bit about yourself. With other features like blogging tools, uploading photos, videos and music, joining forums and writing comments, you have the opportunity to personalize your profile and tell people more about who you are. And as any marketing expert will tell you, people buy from those that they know, like and trust!

To stress the point, one recent study showed that 41% of the members of one particular social networking for business site were IT (Internet technology) professionals. These individuals used social networking to generate business contacts and to gain further knowledge about their profession.

It’s very similar to how retailers need and want to expand their markets. They no longer have to go door-to-door to make a sale because they now have alternative ways available to get similar results. A good example of this would be someone who joins a networking site, joins a discussion, sees an opportunity and then takes it. If the owner of that opportunity was able to provide a quality service, other people would also have more of a tendency to use that same product or service as well.

There are some who say that the popularity of social networks for business will eventually kill web searching. But experts in the industry say that this is just not possible because Google, Bing, Yahoo and the other major search engines just won’t allow that to happen. While there may be new features available in these social networks in the future, people will still need to use the search engines when they need information.

Social networking for business sites are here to stay because aside from maintaining contacts with existing friends and making new ones, there are other things that members can also do with them. All it takes is someone to think outside the box to find better uses for them – which will always be welcomed by the public.

It also shows that creativity always gives forth to new ideas. And without social networking for business technology, we won’t have the ability to improve and come up with even better business solutions!

The secret behind internet marketing channels and corporate branding strategies

The Internet is an ever-present corporate communications and sales channel. But, many companies are still not utilizing very much of its power in developing internet marketing channels. That could be because of loyalties to more comfortable old sales channels, or that there just aren’t enough Internet marketing experts to take their brands into the digital realm.

In the process of searching for new and effective sales channels, internet marketing channels have proven to be the only area that has no limits. If corporations want to create new internet marketing channels, the only thing stopping them is the limits of their own creativity.

Regardless of the hold-ups in leveraging internal or external Internet marketing channels and communications options, businesses developing internet marketing channels are growing their share of the market at a much faster rate. Resistance toward the Internet is futile and with this change in how customers are reached, is a change in the symbolism, voice, and style of promoting brands. That doesn’t necessarily mean the Internet can’t play a supporting role for your offline or TV advertising. For many campaigns, the Internet is just another conduit for sales videos and corporate brochures.

The Internet, whether through public Web sites, search engines, Internet radio broadcasts, email marketing, or internet marketing channels is very targeted. It has been shown to reach the right target, at the right time, with the right message. It doesn’t matter whether you use a Web friendly, or search engine friendly approach to your online advertising and promotion. You need to have a presence there anyway you can. It’s far too important to let it slide!

Consider Twitter and Facebook, the online communities of choice today. Why is it that they are growing at such a rapid pace, and why are they being targeted by search engines? It’s mainly because Microsoft and Google both understand the value of the users they have and the value that their internet marketing channels produce.

The traffic from these internet marketing channels and networks flow through their search engines and increase the total number of users on their platforms.

But what about companies that want to leverage corporate internet marketing channels strategies? Can they do the same? Well, statistics show that even though businesses that market online produce more rapid growth, the social revolution online is only just beginning!

If, for instance, your company markets itself as a Business-to-Business (B2B) provider, you could create a B2B social networking environment to generate value for your member businesses, and get them the internet marketing channels connections they need in order to generate solutions to their business problems.

If on the other hand, you were in a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) environment, coming up with the right social networking system could also enable your corporate marketing division to generate the right statistics to move you in the direction you need. After all, you can gather consumer behavior information through this social networking system using specific internet marketing channels.

Internet marketing channels and other branding strategies, particularly those that deliver targeted visitors to your Web site, ensure your customers recognize your established credibility and relevance. Remember that Web visitors are in an intense state of consciousness. They’re very often looking for something quite specific. On the other hand, television and magazines are very different. The channels and pages in these mediums are limited and the prospect is captured. Not so on the Internet. There are billions of web pages and hundreds of millions of Web sites.

Searchers are looking for quick solutions too. They’re not looking for fancy graphics and complicated menus that fly out all over the place. They’re looking for specific things about your products and services. If you use your internet marketing channels effectively, you’ll have a very low cost of adapting your brand imagery and communications to suit each group of visitors. Generally, it just takes another Web page designed and written for that group of consumers. You can fashion your homepage to let current customers get to what they’re looking for as well.

And finally, with search engines, consumers can get help finding what they’re looking for. High ranking sites get first crack at these motivated and directed consumers. Your corporate Internet marketing channels and associated branding strategies should be heavily involved in search engine visibility. It is an opportunity to present your site many different ways to many different types of consumers.